56th Hunger Games Chapter 7
Devastating Day 1 I woke up with the feeling of tiny snow flakes falling on my face. I looked around and saw that Amber and Cixto were still sleeping. We spent the night on the tree just in case the careers came back, searching for us. Suddenly i hear a noise. I heard it near the supplies we gathered yesterday. I went to look what was making that noise and saw Duana trying to steal our things. "DUANA!" I shouted "what are you doing?!" She didn't even answer, she just grabbed some food and climbed down the tree. I went after her as quick as i could. When she reached the floor she ran as fast as she could, luckily for me she had a wound on her leg from the bloodbath. I ran after her for a while until she reached a peak. If you It was a long fall, despite the big amount of snow that could soften her fall she would definitely die. "Give me the food and i'll let you escape" i told her "NO, i'll never give you this food, i need it" she said "Well we need it too you know" i said "it could've been yours if you had come with us in the first place" "Well i didn't want to, you have to understand that at least i needed to try to enter the careers" she told me "but no, you didn't understand, after i failed you rejected me" she said "Well you rejected our offer so we rejected you. Now give me the food!!" I demanded "Never!!" She shouted She stepped backwards to protect the food but suddenly the floor cracked and she fell down. I went running to the edge of the peak and saw her body destroyed in the snow. It was awful, then, a few seconds later, the cannon sounded all over the arena. I had no other option than to go back. Poor Duana, she could've joined us. She didn't deserve to die like that but there's nothing i could do for her now. I felt sad though, i think that she could've been a great member of our pack but se refused to. Now that i think of it i feel bad because of not letting her in our pack. She wanted so badly to enter the careers and when she failed she just needed some friends to be with, and we took that away from her. We're horrible people. We guided ourselves by the way she refused to our offer before, not knowing that she needed us. Poor Duana, i wish i could've saved her. I was following my footprints back to the tree when all of a sudden the cannon goes off again. I stop, my heart freezes when i suddenly think: Amber, Cixto! I run as fast as i can towards the tree. "Amber!! Cixto!! Amber!!" I shout I stop to see if i get a response but i hear none. Fear runs through my veins as i keep running towards the tree, but then i hear two voices shout my name. "Evan!! Evan!!" They shouted I see them: Amber and Cixto. They run towards me and i hug both of them. They thought something had happened to me. If none of us are hurt then maybe one of the careers died, or another tribute, or....suddenly i remember: Pepper, Leo, Karen! We hadn't seen them since the bloodbath. "Pepper, Leo, Karen!" I say "What's with them?" Cixto asks suddenly realizing how stupid his question was. "Where are they?" Amber said "I don't know but we must start looking for them right away. Let's grab our stuff and start searching for them" i said "Let's go!" Cixto said We grab our things and start walking through the white snow. We can't shout their names because if not the careers would know were we are so we just hoped to find them before dark. A long time had passed and we thought we would never find them but then we heard Leo's voice. "I'm freaking coooold!!" He complained "What do you want us to do?! Change the weather?!" Karen said annoyed "Hey guys!" I shouted "over here!" "Hey look it's Evan!" Pepper said "Hey!" Leo said We joined together and told each other what had happened until now. "Duana was trying to steal our food" i told them "Did you stop her?!" Leo asked "Kind of" i said "What do you mean "kind of"?" Karen asked "Well she started running so i followed her...but she stopped at a cliff.." I began "when i told her to give me back the food and i'll let her run away she stepped backwards and fell" i said "Oh my god! Did she survive?" Pepper asked "No, her death was inevitable" i said sadly "Oh my god that's horrible!" Pepper said "Horrible? That's great! That saved us the time of killing her" Karen said with a smile "Yeah one less person to kill" Leo said "What's wrong with you?! She needed us and we threw her away! We led her to do what she did!" I shouted "Yeah don't you see! What we did was horrible! You should- " she was cut off by Amber "STOP! We shouldn't be fighting like this! Who cares if she meant something to any of us. She's dead now. The past is the past, we should be focusing on what to do now so that WE can survive instead of fighting over dead people!!" Amber shouted "She's right. I'm sorry guys" I said "Yeah we're sorry too" Leo said "Now let's keep walking okay?" Amber said We kept walking to see if we could find some place to stay for the night. It was very cold and everybody was getting hungry. We reached a frozen river and started to go across it when suddenly we heard a "crack!". "STOP!!" I shouted "don't move" "We have to slide our feet until we reach the other side" Pepper explained "That way the ice won't brake" she told us And so we did. We sled our feet over the ice to reach the other side. It seems the Gamemakers realized our technique because another "Crack!" was heard beneath Pepper's feet, then another one and another one. She looked at us worried, because she knew that it wouldn't be long until the ice broke down. And she was right. A last "Crack!" was heard and the ice beneath Pepper broke and she fell into the river. I instinctively jumped through the hole to rescue her. The ice was freezing cold and i thought i wouldn't last long but i had to do it for Pepper. I grabbed her arm and swam towards the surface, when i tried to find the hole i couldn't, i made a desperate effort to open my eyes and see were it was but it was no where in sight. I kicked and punched the ice for it to break but i couldn't the water was to cold my movements became almost null. Suddenly i heard something hitting the ice from the other side. I realized it was Leo trying to save us. He was hitting the ice with a log, seconds later the ice finally broke. I was falling unconscious when a hand from outside grabbed me and pulled me up. Even though i was out my body didn't move as i pleased so i decided to stop fighting and close my eyes. "This is it" i thought "i'm dead and i never got to tell Amber what my feeling were, i never got to tell my family how much i loved them but i guess that's how it is....here in The Hunger Games..." All of a sudden i feel warm. Lips are pressing against mine filling my lungs with air, i hear a voice, Amber's voice, telling me to wake up, but she sounds different. She's crying. I open my eyes slowly and Karen steps away, she saved my life. I sit up and Amber,crying, hugs me. "I thought you were dead!!" She said "I thought that too" i told her "I was so scared!!" She said with tears falling down her cheek "I'm here now. You can calm down" i said "Here eat this" Cixto said handing me some fruits. I ate, slowly recovering my senses, i remembered the reason why i was like this: "PEPPER" i shouted "IS SHE OKAY?!" "She couldn't make it" Karen said "WHAT?! BUT I SAVED HER!" I told her "Calm down Evan it was inevitable she was down the for too long" Leo explained "BUT...BUT..." I started "Shhh.. Calm down" Amber said "you need to rest" "That's why we need to stop worrying so much about the inevitable death of our fellow tributes and find a place to stay the night" Karen said frustrated "As much as i'd like to keep talking about how awful Pepper's dead was, Karen's right" Leo said "Yeah we must find a place to sleep, the sun is going down so we better start walking" Amber said "You ready to walk?" Cixto asked "Yeah i can" i replied I stood up slowly and started to walk. After a few minutes i could walk normally. "Let's go" i said sadly We walked for what seemed ages until we finally found a warm cave to sleep in. After we settled in we all said our good nights to each other and almost instantly went to sleep. Nobody cared that the cave was dark and we couldn't see nothing. It was warm and it was more than we could ask for in a place were our faith is decided by the capitol. Without realizing that we were here the careers found the cave too and went inside to sleep. They settled in meters away from us neither of us realizing that the other was there. They went to sleep as quick as we did calm because we thought they we far far away and so did they. The moon shone bright in the night sky, the owls and wolves could be heard within the forest. It was a beautiful winter night. I woke up because i was uncomfortable, i stood up and re-arranged my position when suddenly i hear a scratch on the cave walls. I saw all the member of my pack, except for Pepper, and i check if all of them were asleep until that scream... "AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH" a girl's voice echoed through the cave Amber, Leo, and Karen woke up instantly. Our hearts pounding faster than ever. "Grab your things!! Quick!" I ordered They did as i said and we started walking fast through the cave's passageways. We found the careers staring at a humongous beast. It had the shape of a bear but it had bones popping out here and there. I quickly deduced it was a mutation because the bones coming out from him didn't give him any difficulty to move. I noticed something strange i his mouth, it wasn't part of his body it was... Mistral... The careers were fearful at the sight of this beast. He was in four legs because if he stood up the whole cave would collapse. After analyzing the beast i realized he was a Bonebracker.I knew his name because Haymitch told us some of the mutations that the capitol could throw in the arena. "It's a Bonebracker!!!!" I shouted "We need to get out of here! NOW!" Tamara shouted "We must get out too!" I said We started running. When the beast realized we were trying to escape he swallowed Mistral's corpse and chased us. We ran as fast as we could but it seemed it wasn't enough. 'Luckily we reached the entrance of the cave in time. It seems the beast lived there and wouldn't go out of the cave for any reason. We walked away and sat at the shadow of a tree nearby. When i counted the careers i saw that they were missing one: Mento. "Where's Mento?!" Darrius asked desperately "I think the beast got him" Lance said "NO THAT CAN'T BE!" Darrius shouted "We need to go Darrius, it's not safe here" Tamara said "AGH CRAP!" He said Tamara and Darrius walked away but Lance stood there looking inside the cave. "Mento...." Lance said in a sad voice "why you of all the tributes..." He continued "It seems he had bonded with Mento" i said "Well even the careers can make friends" Amber told me "Yeah i guess" i said After giving one last look at the cave he walked away. He kept his distance from the other careers. It seemed he wanted to be alone.After they left i realized: Lance did know that the beast took Mento away...he saw it, and so did i. We were running towards the cave's entrance when suddenly the beast raised it's giant paw and hit Mento with it. He fell on the floor and the Bonebracker grabbed him with his paw and took him away... "Hey Evan i think we should sleep up this tree" Karen said "Yeah sure" i said almost no paying attention. After that we climbed up the tree and settle down ready to sleep once again. Hopefully with no interruptions this time. I suddenly realized we were more in number than the careers. For an unknown reason that made me happy. Made me think we had a chance of winning. Of surviving. I fell asleep looking at the moon that shone brightly in the sky and the feeling of tiny snowflakes falling on my face.